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New matchmaking algorithm is in the works by QAN that should make matches more fair.

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Current matchmaking/benching clarification (posted by qan)

Currently, benching is a combination of 4 factors:

The first is controversial -- players who are rated better in that league have a somewhat improved chance of playing. This seems unfair at first glance, and perhaps it is. However, those who are best in their league have also put in the most time in the past to develop their skill. So this is a way of honoring their commitment to Trench Wars and to high-level league play. It is not the only factor figuring in to whether or not someone plays, either.

Those who have played fewer than 20 TSL games have a slightly increased chance to play over those who already have 20. This factor is the smallest of the 4 and should not be noticeable for most players. After you've played 20 games you receive no advantage to play over others.

If you were benched in that league the previous game, you have a significantly higher chance of playing in the next game in that league. (Almost guaranteed.)

A simple random factor also plays into who is benched.

Future changes to matchmaking/benching:
I'll be implementing a brute force matchmaking algorithm soon. Essentially, given the pool of available players, the bot will fill the two teams, and check how close they are in skill. Then it will randomly swap two players, including anyone who was not added to the teams (benchers). If the balance is improved by the swap, the swap stays. If it isn't improved by the swap, it's reversed. This is done over 1000 times (or more, if needed). The result is roughly the best balance of teams possible. However, as this will only be as good as the ratings, it's important those are accurate. Rating lower-ranked players properly will be especially crucial to its success, which is one place Ogron was a little weak (however well he knows the top players). This should be improved by having ratings public and publicly debated. In time the hope is to create floating ratings which change slightly each game based on player performance.

Note: players benched in that league's last game will have a near-guaranteed slot in that league next game; the balancer will focus on them as a starting point, and balance around them.

Last edited by qan; 11-28-2017 at 07:00 PM.

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8:Tiny> U COMING SUNDAY BRO?
8:beam> i wont be here sunday but you could save on your car insurance by switching to geico

Base ratings will now be normalized at the end of the game vs other leagues and across the 3 basing ships. If you were an All Star in S2 and were wondering why your base rating didn't match the TSL website, it's because Ogron normalized the scores at the end so the value vs skill would roughly match TSLJ/D, and we'd have a better indicator cross-league of performance -- that is, $500 in base would be more easily compared to $500 in J/D.

That change will be implemented on a per-game basis this season, so the numbers you see at the end of a round and on the website will match your final value.

The multipliers are as follows:

Terr: score x 0.852
Shark: score x 0.7351
Spider: score x 0.806

If you wish to compare your S3 basing scores vs S2, divide your S3 scores by this number. (Note: hopefully we'll soon have a way to view past seasons via the site. At the moment the TSL site only displays a single season. But, the data is still in the database.)

"You're a gentleman," they used to say to him. "You shouldn't have gone murdering people with a hatchet; that's no occupation for a gentleman."
-Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment

when game is closed and teams are made, players will receive a PM from bot telling them what team they are on and which arena to go.
if after 30seconds the player remains in TSL they will receive a 2nd PM from bot telling which arena to go to.
Hopefully this reduces the time it takes to get players added and ready (esp for those that tab out after doing !p)

8:beam> yo tiny i have some good news for u
8:Tiny> U COMING SUNDAY BRO?
8:beam> i wont be here sunday but you could save on your car insurance by switching to geico

Brute-force team balancer's been finished. Should be in for season start. Very happy to report that this algorithm is strong, and creates teams that are more balanced (in terms of rating) than our previous system. In fact, the first 3 times I ran it, it created exactly balanced teams. (Total rating was exactly equal on both sides.) Our previous algorithm wasn't bad ... most of the time the teams came out pretty even. But there were a few special cases where extremely unbalanced teams could be created. The new algorithm will easily handle those cases.

This means the S2 criteria used to determine who is benched -- rating, games played, & random factor -- are currently being thrown out in favor of creating the most balanced teams possible using the max # of available players. If this doesn't work well, we can introduce the S2 criteria and then ignore benchers for the purpose of balancing, though this will result in slightly less balanced teams.

If you are benched by the new algorithm in the previous round in that league, you are guaranteed a spot in the next round of that league. (Done on a per-league basis.)

"You're a gentleman," they used to say to him. "You shouldn't have gone murdering people with a hatchet; that's no occupation for a gentleman."
-Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment

You can also check !showteams after teams have been made and it will show you the ratings and total strengths of all players on the team. You can use this to verify how close matchmaking is. In some cases the bot is able to make a perfect match, with total ratings exactly equal. In S1 and 2, it wasn't uncommon to have a gap of 20, 30 or even 40 points. So far the largest gap I've seen has been around 10 in S3, and that's a pretty rare case. Most of the time it's within 3 or 4.

Check !help for a full list of all commands currently available, as they may change from time to time.

You may notice ratings will sometimes be + or - 1 of their total rating. This is so if the exact same people play the same league again, the teams should be slightly different (most of the time). Otherwise, you'd always get the same match if the same players do !p.

Currently ratings do not change, but we're working on a way to have them adjust very slightly with each game in a way that is not too disruptive/risky. Ops will still be able to adjust them manually to fix any issues.

"You're a gentleman," they used to say to him. "You shouldn't have gone murdering people with a hatchet; that's no occupation for a gentleman."
-Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment